What is a 'halal mortgage'? Does it make housing more accessible?
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
Russia launched a pre-dawn missile barrage at the Ukrainian capital Thursday, killing three people, including a 9-year-old and her mother, and damaging apartment buildings, schools and a children's hospital, officials said. It was the highest toll from a single attack on Kyiv over the past month.
A 33-year-old woman died as she and others waited to enter a locked air-raid shelter, which left the group at the mercy of falling missile fragments, according to her husband. Officials ordered an investigation.
The latest Russian attack, using what Ukrainian officials said were short-range Iskander ground-launched missiles, coincided with events scheduled in Kyiv to celebrate International Children's Day. Those events were cancelled.
Ukrainian air defences shot down all 10 cruise and ballistic missiles launched by the Kremlin's forces, but falling debris caused damage and casualties on the ground, wounding 16 people, according to authorities.
Russia has kept up a steady barrage on the Ukrainian capital and other parts of the country in recent weeks as Kyiv readies what it says is a counteroffensive to push back Moscow's troops, 15 months after their full-scale invasion. Kyiv was the target of drone and missile attacks on 17 days last month.
"Children's Day has to be about safe childhood, summer, life," tweeted Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska. "But today it is about new crimes of (Russia) against children."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the dead included a 9-year-old girl, her mother and another woman.
At the air-raid shelter that was locked, Yaroslav Riabchuk said he and his wife of 17 years, Natalia, were outside when he ran around the back of the building to summon the guard in charge.
"I ran, but then an explosion happened," Riabchuk said. "Shattered glass started falling, and I knew I had to run back. When I returned, it was over. There was a lot of blood, women, children."
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities were investigating. He gave orders to the heads of the city's districts to immediately check if all the shelters in Kyiv were accessible.
Since February 2022, at least 525 children have been killed and at least 1,047 have been injured, according to the U.N.'s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Six children were killed and 34 were wounded last month alone, the mission said.
"Sadly, as the world marks International Children's Day, there is little to celebrate in Ukraine where civilians, including children, continue to pay a heavy price" said Matilda Bogner, the mission's chief.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry cited different figures for child casualties in the war, saying at least 484 children have been killed and 992 wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile those numbers with the U.N. figures.
Meanwhile in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin led a meeting with families via video link to mark the day.
Putin met with families that have many children and vowed to maintain state subsidies and other measures to support them. When one of the participants in the meeting voiced confidence that Russia would be victorious in Ukraine, Putin noted that "it will be so."
"There is no doubt about it, because we are protecting our land, our people and our values," he said.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Kyiv since the start of the invasion, but attacks against the capital have intensified over the past month. While Ukraine's air defences have become increasingly effective at intercepting Russian drones and missiles, many Kyiv residents are anxious and tired after weeks of sleepless nights.
Russia is probably seeking to degrade Ukraine's air defences by targeting launchers and forcing the Ukrainians to fire off expensive missiles, a Western official said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
"But in this, we think it's unlikely to be notably successful. Ukraine is becoming quite adept at dedicating less advanced defence systems to neutralize the relatively easy targets that the drones present," the official said.
Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said the Kremlin targets Kyiv because it is a symbol of Ukrainian power.
"It's a psychological attack to intimidate and demoralize Ukrainians and to show they are capable of everything," she said in an interview with The Associated Press.
One of Thursday's explosions sent missile fragments ripping through an apartment building in a leafy neighbourhood. In the morning light, paramedics gingerly escorted an elderly woman away from the building as the bare feet of a person killed in the attack poked out from under a plastic tarpaulin in a roped-off area between the trees.
"Around 3 a.m. there was a strike over there. I woke up and saw the fire. My door was smashed, I woke up my mom and ran to the corridor," said resident Nikita Maslun, peering through a broken window. "Then we went down and ran outside. We saw people running. Windows were shattered and balconies destroyed."
In the Desnianskyi district, debris fell on a children's hospital and a nearby multistory building. Two schools and a police department were damaged. In other areas, windows were blown out.
Across Ukraine, a total of seven civilians were killed and 27 wounded over the previous 24 hours, the presidential office said Thursday.
Russia's Defense Ministry said groups of Ukrainian fighters attempted Thursday to enter Russia's Belgorod region but were repulsed. The largest contingent consisted of about 70 men, five tanks and four armoured vehicles, the ministry said.
A group that calls itself the Russian Volunteer Corps, and purports to include Russians fighting on the Ukrainian side, earlier released a video claiming that they were on the border and about to launch a raid into the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region.
A similar group that calls itself the Freedom of Russia Legion also announced a plan to launch a cross-border raid.
The two groups claimed responsibility for a cross-border raid last month that marked one of the most serious such attacks on Russian territory. The fighting with Russian forces prompted authorities to evacuate residents of a town near the border.
------
Associated Press writers Mstyslav Chernov and Vasilisa Stepanenko contributed in Kyiv, Ukraine. Jill Lawless contributed from London
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'doesn't get' the global phenomenon.
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.
Polish President Andrzej Duda says while no decision has been made around whether Poland will host nuclear weapons as part of an expansion of the NATO alliance’s nuclear sharing program, his country is willing and prepared to do so.
A number of LGBQT+2s groups in Central Alberta are pushing back against a request from the Red Deer South UCP constituency to reinstate MLA Jennifer Johnson into the UCP caucus.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”